Brand Language Examples: What do Google and Disney have in common?   Ok, before we get to that, let’s play a quick game—I’ll say a word and you say the brand that pops into your mind: Magic kingdom… do it… 15 percent… overnight. Were the brands you thought of Disney, Nike, Geico, and FedEx? These […]

What’s on your marketing to-do list this year? According to a presentation Sheryl Pattek, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester, gave at a meeting of the NJ chapter of MENG (Marketing Executives Networking Group) last month, these are the key priorities and initiatives that are—or should be—on every CMO’s 2013 to-do list. 1. Mapping […]

Have you heard the term “newsjacking” being bandied about lately but aren’t quite sure what it is, or if you should be doing it? Newsjacking is a new name for an old PR trick for getting great media coverage for free by injecting your brand or product into a breaking news story. I thought I […]

Watching the Superbowl is an American tradition and this year’s game between the 49ers and the Ravens was no different. What was different about this year’s Big Game, however, was the surprise power outage, which left about half the Superdome in the dark for a half hour. During the blackout, the social media team for […]

Your Social Media Strategy For marketers, social media represents a big change. And as in any big change, reactions tend to be a bit bipolar: I see some of my fellow marketers digging in their heels, clinging tightly to traditional strategies and hoping that the social media frenzy will die down. Others have become evangelists, […]

Customers who buy from you follow a journey. It’s a journey that’s getting more complicated and complex as online marketing, mobile marketing and social media marketing all come into the mix, but it is still a journey that goes through a series of fairly well-known phases. There is the (1) awareness phase, when a prospect […]

In the world of marketing, digital signage is the new kid on the block–literally. As flat screen monitors have gotten less expensive and video and graphics software has gotten better, digital signs have started popping up all over the place, replacing traditional printed posters, menus, schedule boards, etc.  There’s a good chance you have experienced […]

Social media is becoming more pervasive every day. The one billion plus users on Facebook is testimony to that. Because we work with many B2B brands, we are often asked if social media is really relevant to a B2B marketing strategy. I think the answer is unquestionably yes. There are many reasons for this (which […]

The other day I went shopping with my 16-year old niece.  We have done this many times. She loves it because I am not her Mom, I am happy to have her friends along for the ride and she seems to value my opinion. But in this case, we never left the house, I never […]

Back in the day, when direct marketing (i.e., direct mail or today, derisively, “snail mail”) was a primary way to solicit customers, the very real costs of copywriting, design, printing, postage, managing the mailing etc. gave marketers pause. Typically, this meant that any new initiative would have started with an ROI calculation: x pieces to […]

Today’s B2B marketers have a lot of tools at their disposal.  However, not all tools are created equal.  And many marketers are confused by which strategies to employ.  Should they emulate B2C marketers or should they use very different approaches.  You will find that there is a little bit of truth to both of those. […]